Response of Porcine Carotid Arteries to Independent Control of Medial Tensile Stresses and Shear Stress

Remodeling plays an important role in normal arterial physiology and in the genesis and progression of vascular pathologies. Arteries respond to changes in their global mechanical environment, characterized by blood flow rate, arterial pressure, and longitudinal stretch by changing geometry, structure and composition. Remodeling results from altered vascular cell activity caused by perturbed local stresses and strains and, in general, tends to restore the local mechanical parameters to their baseline values. To date, experimental investigations in vivo and in organ culture have focused on remodeling responses initiated by controlled sustained changes in one global mechanical parameter while keeping the others at baseline values.